The Other Within

The Other Within is a Boston University interdisciplinary faculty initiative administered by the CAS Department of Religion that developed new courses and programs in modern Jewish identity and contemporary culture.

BU Anthropology Assistant Professor Kimberly Arkin discussed her current book project. Rhinestones, Religion, and the Republic: Fashioning Jewishness in France examines post-Second Intifada transformations in the relationship between national and ethno-religious identities among Parisian Jews.

“The Modern Jew” ventures into the rich and complex historical and sociological fields of religion, secularization, and identity formation by way of jewish self-fashioning within multiple modernities and post-modernities. draws on theoretical readings in nationalism and queer theory to explore the ways in which jewishness has been performed in various cultural and political contexts, including enlightenment and emancipation, assimilation and nationalism, migration and americanization.

the course is part of a faculty initiative called “the other within” that also includes courses on Judaism as a political tradition (“foundations of jewish politics”) and “the heretical jew,” which looks at constructions of normativity and deviance in jewish religious, political, and cultural history.

students of sociology, history, religion, politics, and various area studies (amnesp, wgs, drts, jewish studies) are particularly encouraged to take one or more of these courses.